Utopia

Sir Thomas More

BOOK II

THE island of Utopia is in the
middle 200 miles broad, and holds almost at the same breadth over a great part
of it; but it grows narrower toward both ends. Its figure is not unlike a
crescent: between its horns, the sea comes in eleven miles broad, and spreads
itself into a great bay, which is environed with land to the compass of about
500 miles, and is well secured from winds. In this bay there is no great
current; the whole coast is, as it were, one continued harbor, which gives all
that live in the island great convenience for mutual commerce; but the entry
into the bay, occasioned by rocks on the one hand, and shallows on the other,
is very dangerous. In the middle of it there is one single rock which appears
above water, and may therefore be easily avoided, and on the top of it there is
a tower in which a garrison is kept; the other rocks lie under water, and are
very dangerous. The channel is known only to the natives, so that if any
stranger should enter into the bay, without one of their pilots, he would run
great danger of shipwreck; for even they themselves could not pass it safe, if
some marks that are on the coast did not direct their way; and if these should
be but a little shifted, any fleet that might come against them, how great
soever it were, would be certainly lost.

On the other side of the island there are likewise many harbors; and the
coast is so fortified, both by nature and art, that a small number of men can
hinder the descent of a great army. But they report (and there remain good
marks of it to make it credible) that this was no island at first, but a part
of the continent. Utopus that conquered it (whose name it still carries, for
Abraxa was its first name) brought the rude and uncivilized inhabitants into
such a good government, and to that measure of politeness, that they now far
excel all the rest of mankind; having soon subdued them, he designed to
separate them from the continent, and to bring the sea quite round them. To
accomplish this, he ordered a deep channel to be dug fifteen miles long; and
that the natives might not think he treated them like slaves, he not only
forced the inhabitants, but also his own soldiers, to labor in carrying it on.
As he set a vast number of men to work, he beyond all men's expectations
brought it to a speedy conclusion. And his neighbors who at first laughed at
the folly of the undertaking, no sooner saw it brought to perfection than they
were struck with admiration and terror.

There are fifty-four cities in the island, all large and well built: the
manners, customs, and laws of which are the same, and they are all contrived as
near in the same manner as the ground on which they stand will allow. The
nearest lie at least twenty-four miles distance from one another, and the most
remote are not so far distant but that a man can go on foot in one day from it
to that which lies next it. Every city sends three of its wisest Senators once
a year to Amaurot, to consult about their common concerns; for that is the
chief town of the island, being situated near the centre of it, so that it is
the most convenient place for their assemblies. The jurisdiction of every city
extends at least twenty miles: and where the towns lie wider, they have much
more ground: no town desires to enlarge its bounds, for the people consider
themselves rather as tenants than landlords. They have built over all the
country, farmhouses for husbandmen, which are well contrived, and are furnished
with all things necessary for country labor. Inhabitants are sent by turns from
the cities to dwell in them; no country family has fewer than forty men and
women in it, besides two slaves. There is a master and a mistress set over
every family; and over thirty families there is a magistrate.

Every year twenty of this family come back to the town, after they have
stayed two years in the country; and in their room there are other twenty sent
from the town, that they may learn country work from those that have been
already one year in the country, as they must teach those that come to them the
next from the town. By this means such as dwell in those country farms are
never ignorant of agriculture, and so commit no errors, which might otherwise
be fatal, and bring them under a scarcity of corn. But though there is every
year such a shifting of the husbandmen, to prevent any man being forced against
his will to follow that hard course of life too long, yet many among them take
such pleasure in it that they desire leave to continue in it many years. These
husbandmen till the ground, breed cattle, hew wood, and convey it to the towns,
either by land or water, as is most convenient. They breed an infinite
multitude of chickens in a very curious manner; for the hens do not sit and
hatch them, but vast numbers of eggs are laid in a gentle and equal heat, in
order to be hatched, and they are no sooner out of the shell, and able to stir
about, but they seem to consider those that feed them as their mothers, and
follow them as other chickens do the hen that hatched them.

They breed very few horses, but those they have are full of mettle, and are
kept only for exercising their youth in the art of sitting and riding them; for
they do not put them to any work, either of ploughing or carriage, in which
they employ oxen; for though their horses are stronger, yet they find oxen can
hold out longer; and as they are not subject to so many diseases, so they are
kept upon a less charge, and with less trouble; and even when they are so worn
out, that they are no more fit for labor, they are good meat at last. They sow
no corn, but that which is to be their bread; for they drink either wine,
cider, or perry, and often water, sometimes boiled with honey or licorice, with
which they abound; and though they know exactly how much corn will serve every
town, and all that tract of country which belongs to it, yet they sow much
more, and breed more cattle than are necessary for their consumption; and they
give that overplus of which they make no use to their neighbors. When they want
anything in the country which it does not produce, they fetch that from the
town, without carrying anything in exchange for it. And the magistrates of the
town take care to see it given them; for they meet generally in the town once a
month, upon a festival day. When the time of harvest comes, the magistrates in
the country send to those in the towns, and let them know how many hands they
will need for reaping the harvest; and the number they call for being sent to
them, they commonly despatch it all in one day.